If you want your milk straight from the cow, you HAVE to call South Mountain Creamery!
Serving 8,500 customers in DC, MD, VA, PA, & WV

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PROTECTING OUR ENVIRONMENT for the FUTURE

Sustainability Initiatives

South Mountain Creamery’s goal is to be a completely self-sustaining company. That means we use our own resources to power the farm! We like to call it, “from field to fork.” As farmers, we consider ourselves sustainable by:

- Satisfying human food and fiber needs

- Enhancing environmental quality and the natural resource base upon which the agricultural economy depends- Making the most efficient use of non-renewable resources and on-farm resources- Sustaining the economic viability of farm operations- Enhancing the quality of life for farmers and society as a whole.

ELECTRICITY: A methanedigester is a series of processes in which microorganisms break down biodegradable material in the absence of oxygen, used for industrial or domestic purposes to manage waste and/or to release energy. This is where manure comes in! We will burn the methane in a converted internal combustion engine that will power an electric generator that will supply SMC with all our power needs. This process also produces a lot of extra heat that we will use to dry grain, and to heat the cow barn, milking parlour, and creamery offices!

BIODIESEL: A soybean press is a process of pressing soybeans to make our own soybean meal for animal feed. The byproduct of the pressing process is soy oil which we can convert into biodiesel. We will then burn the oil in our diesel trucks at about 5%-10%. Completed in 2013!

GEOTHERMAL: This system will be used to heat our sick cow barn. Energy from ground is transferred to a cooler which is then exchanged to a heater.

SOLAR: The roof of our Certified Humane chicken house provides an excellent surface area for our anticipated southern facing solar panels. That will provide enough energy to power the new chicken house, egg packer, and grader. We are also discussing installing solar panels on the new warehouse we’re building!

WIND: Lightning Whistle Solutions is working to find out the amount of wind we have at SMC. We have a sustainable wind of 13MPH at 50' above the ground about 60 percent of the time. After acquiring the proper permits, we will begin working on purchasing a 300 kw wind turbine to place on the farm.